MVRDV Breaks Ground on Mixed-Use “Valley” to Inject Life into Amsterdam’s Business District

MVRDV has broken ground on “Valley” (previously known as P15 Ravel Plaza), a 75,000-square-meter mixed-use building located within the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam. Featuring residential units, offices, parking, a sky bar and retail and cultural space, the building will inject a sense of life and excitement into the neighborhood, transforming the district into a more varied and liveable urban quarter.

The project takes the form of green-terraced stacked boxed that rise to three peaks of different heights, the tallest capping out at 100 meters with the two-story Sky Bar. These residential towers sit on top of a publicly-accessible plinth, where a pedestrian path runs from street level up along terraced roof gardens to the central valley area on the 4th and 5th floors that features a year-round landscape designed by Piet Oudolf.

Clad in a carved natural stone facade, the form has been parametrically designed to allow sunlight to penetrate throughout all of the complex’s 196 apartments, all of which feature a unique floor plan. Driven by the concept of transition between the existing business typologies and the new mixed-use structure, MVRDV set out to create an outward looking structure that was both respectful of its neighbors and boldly innovative.

“By placing the residential volumes on top of the multifunctional plinth and pushing them to the very edge of the envelope, the resulting volume reads as one single entity. In mirroring the corporate surroundings through its reflective exterior façade, the design acknowledges its corporate heritage and visually connects to its immediate neighbours,” explain MVRDV. “In direct contrast to this, the inner façade is defined by a series of rugged, stone terraces with large planters, covering the building in vegetation and bringing a sense of human scale to the volume. Through this opposing treatment of the facades, the duality of the resulting volume, which is reminiscent of a carved out block, is expressed: The corporate vs the residential. The XL vs the human scale.

“Valley combines residential apartments with a green environment that offers panoramic views of Amsterdam,” added Winy Maas, MVRDV co-founder. “A lively plinth offering a range of commercial activities has some offices above and is topped finally with residences. The carving out of the resulting block ensures that it becomes less introverted than existing buildings in the Zuidas. There will be many terraces, both private and public, filled with people, flowers, plants and outdoor seating.”

With construction now underway, the project aiming toward a BREEAM-NL Excellent rating for sustainability upon completion in 2021.

Learn more about the project here.

News via MVRDV.

Architects: MVRDV
Location: Zuidas, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Competition Team: Winy Maas with Jeroen Zuidgeest, Anton Wubben, Luca Moscelli, Sanne van Manen, Elien Deceuninck, Marco Gazzola, Jack Penford Baker, Brygida Zawadzka, Francis Liesting, Annette Lam and Hannah Knudsen
Design Team: Winy Maas with Jeroen Zuidgeest, Gijs Rikken, Gideon Maasland, Guido Boeters, Wietse Elswijk, Saimon Gomez Idiakez, Rik Lambers, Javier Lopez-Menchero, Sanne van Manen, Stephanie McNamara, Thijs van Oostrum, Frank Smit, Boudewijn Thomas, Maria Vasiloglou and Laurens Veth
Client: OVG Real Estate, The Netherlands
Investor: RJB Group of Companies
Contractor: G&S Bouw B.V. and Boele & Van Eesteren B.V.
Landscape Design: DeltaVorm Groep & Piet Oudolf, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Engineering: Inbo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Cost Calculator: BBN adviseurs, Houten, The Netherlands
Structural Engineer: Van Rossum Raadgevende Ingenieurs, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Installations: Deerns, The Hague, The Netherlands
Building Physics: DGMR, The Hague, The Netherlands
Parametric Façade Design: ARUP, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Real Estate Consultant: CBRE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Heeren Makelaars, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Images: Vero Visuals, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Diagrams And Drawings: MVRDV
Graphic Design: PlusOne, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Model: made by mistake, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Area: 75000.0 m2
Photographs: MVRDV